The Hillbilly Project. Pick'up content.

[SLAMbert]

I thought id show you guys my new project, always wanted one.

Its a Mazda B2000 pickup.

I found this one in a field, basically a shell, a beaten up shell, was used as a work horse for a farm and as far as i can see was never cleaned, at all, ever.

I got it as a shell as the plan is to drop a SR in it that my mate has laying about, its just a project to learn new things from and to test out my fabrication and engineering skills as i study for my qualification in mechanical engineering.

I got it back to the unit today and started to clean the 20 years or so of crud everywhere on it, i was scraping it off for hours and still dont think its all out, might have to take the bed off to give it a proper clean up, but while i was doing this i found that the chassis only has surface rust, nothing structural or holes anywhere, which i am extrememly happy about as iv seen s13's in worse nick!

Unfortunatly though every panel is just about dented, it was never going to be pretty so its going to be sprayed in 2 pack red over the random dents and just used and abused.

Anyway here are some pictures.





Told you it was abit of a dog.

I got another set of wings with it, and i will be getting a set of better doors too but im currently searching for the front end, headlights, grille, front bumper etc.

While i was scraping the dirt off my mate took it upon herself to wire brush the arches and when original paintwork started to show through i knew we were onto a winner.



Anyway this is the start of a long road.
I enjoy doing this kind of thing, saving lost causes, and i love learning all i can from it, yes i know there were cleaner ones and more complete ones out there but it was going to be strippedto a shell anyway to use the other engine, i think i seem to have got a fairly solid chassis for a good start so im happy!

If anyone has any advice on anything on these let me know as like i said im keen to know as much as i can or if anyone knows of anyone breaking one or has any spare parts. let me know!

I plan on lowering it next weekend as i discovered its on a torsion bar and leaf spring setup.

Cheers for reading guys!

[SLAMbert]

This didn't work out. Ha, I must have had rose tinted glasses on but i worked on it for a couple of weeks and realized how much work had to be done more and more. So i weighed it in. Luckily scrap prices then were good and i got just short of all of the cash i put into it back.

But deep down i always had the urge to do a pick up project, especially the b2200. So i just put the thought to one side and carried on with the other projects i had. Then a mate offered me this.






Mazda B2200 diesel. For a good price. Short tax and test but i jumped at it and bought it.

Then i put it in for MOT, got back quite a large sheet for rust in the front arches and ball joint dust covers so had to strip it down and short out all of the rust even the bits that were not pointed out just to give me piece of mind.



Then a mate of mine offered me a SR20DE that he'd had in his shed for over 6 years. Came with basically everything that came out of the S14 minus a loom and ECU.




The lowering blocks were ordered from the states as there seemed to be a shortage of suppliers in the UK but im waiting until i buy the wheels to fit it all and notch the chassis.

These are the wheels im going for, 15x10 ET-32



Cant wait to get started.

[SLAMbert]

So, iv quietly been gathering some parts for this for a while, mainly lowering blocks, u bolts and wheels.

Lowering blocks came from the states and were 3 inch angled blocks that came with all U bolts and nuts needed.

Next were the wheels, i managed to get these off eBay by someone who didn't list them very well. The wheels are 15x10 alloy, no idea of the offset so as soon as i got them i wrapped them in rubber and today decided to achieve the drop i wanted.

Unfortunately it didn't go to plan, well half did.






As you can see the front went down as planned, torsion bars were fairly simple. But the lowering blocks didnt seem to make as much impact as intended. Still miles of clearence between the chassis and axle.

My plan next week is to Mono leaf the rear and spend the rest of the week trying to find out what kind of shorter shocks i can get, i also need to give all arches a massive flare unless i want to spend the summer talking to old father william.

So any tips of tricks would be awesome guys.

Cheers.

[SLAMbert]

For the last week the trucks been parked up waiting for the arches to arrive. I had to order some from Lithuania due to a vast majority of UK made ones were not wide enough to cover the Mazda's strange, slightly square arches.

When they arrived i was pleased they were the correct sizes as described, but unfortunately they looked like they were made out of leather.



So today at lunch i set about fitting them just to keep me legal for the time being.




Not 100% sold to be honest, so this weekend ill be rubbing them down and painting them red to match the truck.

I also need to look at lowering the rear as there are a hell of a lot of opinions on mono-leafing so i started looking into de arching the leafs myself at the workshop.

If anyone has any expierience of this let me know some tips and tricks!

[SLAMbert]

So, done a fair bit to this in the past few days. Started with buying a job lot of steering wheels off ebay for a couple of quid and drilled a new PCD to fit the trucks boss.



Need to face it back up to make it tidier and part out the center for a horn but its good for now.

I then thought id try my hand at making a chain link steering wheel, so used some chain link with bent spanners to give it the deep dish look.



I think it looks awesome, but its mainly for show. I also made a shifter extension out of the lathe handle off my old lathe.



I then thought id address the rear suspension to match it up to the front, I researched a fair amount and many were recommending mono leaf suspension with a overload leaf on top. This didn't sit too good with me so decided to leave a couple more leafs in the pack to aid strength.

I had 7 in the pack including 2 overloads so removed 4 leafs thinking at least 1 more would be better then the 2 leafs as suggested.





Unfortunately this didn't go to plan.





It slammed down. The axle hits the chassis over bumps but if i was a stance queen it would be perfect, but as i use it every day i want it slightly higher, so tomorrow ill be adding a leaf back to the pack to hopefully raise it.

[SLAMbert]

As said the other day, i wasn't happy with the outcome of re organizing the pack. So i braved driving it home as i ran out of time to change things. The axle smashed the chassis so much and the suspension had no resistance in it what so ever.

So i went back to my unit the next day and sorted it all out.

This is what it looked like after i got it back to my unit.




The leafs did not look happy in their previous position..



I followed a tutorial online and gathered required info before i set about removing leafs from the pack BUT the main problem with this setup was that i was told to put the overload leaf (the thicker strengthening leaf) on the top rather than under the pack.

This was causing all the problems, basically the pack had no strength so the rear bounced up and down with no resistance what so ever. So, i took the pack apart and placed the over load on the bottom of the pack.

Cured everything, the truck now has suspension that holds and can take weight and it raised the rear up about 10mm to match the front.





This was all done by about lunch so i decided to patch and treat the front arches to a gorgeous hammerite finish. No pictures though as you can imagine that.

[mikey G]

god damn, this thing is awesome.

[projecthoarder]

Awesome, another hillbilly mobile. Have you thought about notching the frame for the axle?

[SLAMbert]

god damn, this thing is awesome.

Cheers dude.

Awesome, another hillbilly mobile. Have you thought about notching the frame for the axle?

Yes mate, I did when it was smashing 7 shades of crap out of itself. But since iv put the overload back on the bottom its amazed me how much more tolerant the travel is now so no need at the moment.

[DeltaAlpha9]

Awesome, the height where it's at now looks perfect. I was wondering how you were going to be legal with that much poke but clearly you addressed that.

[SLAMbert]

Awesome, the height where it's at now looks perfect. I was wondering how you were going to be legal with that much poke but clearly you addressed that.

I rolled about without arch extensions for a few days but then thought i was pushing my luck. Took a little work to find large enough arches but i got there in the end.